Russia's envoy to the United Nations has criticized the latest UN report which singled out the US coalition efforts in fighting ISIS, overlooking the game-changing role of Russia as well as other countries’ achievements in battling terrorism in Syria.

Sharing his assessment of the circulated Report of the Secretary-General in the Security Council on the threat of terrorism in Syria, envoy Vitaly Churkin noted that Russian-led contribution is being neglected, while all the successes are being attributed to the “international coalition forces”led by Washington.[...]Among other things, the ambassador pointed out that he is “bewildered” that the report “doesn’t say a word” about the role Russia played in liberating Palmyra and subsequent Russian mine-sweeping effort of the UNESCO heritage site.

At the same time, Churkin wondered why the UN even bothered to ask Russia for its operational data in Syria, if the report did not take into account any of the information provided by Russia.

Saudi Arabia is set to receive 24 Hellfire-armed AH-6i Little Bird helicopters from US aeronautics contractor Boeing, a sale that would have been banned had the UN not removed the Kingdom from their war crimes against children list.

On Wednesday, Boeing announced that they will begin delivering AH-6i Little Bird light attack and reconnaissance helicopters to Saudi Arabia by the end of the month, as the aircraft begin to come off the production line in Mesa, Arizona by the end of this week.

The contract faced uncertainty late last week when the United Nations included Saudi Arabia on a blacklist as part of their annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), for their role in indiscriminate bombings of schools and hospitals in Yemen.

Pursuant to the Leahy Law, the US Department of State and Department of Defense are prohibited from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights, precisely what the United Nations initially certified in their original report. This prohibition extends to approval of foreign arms sales by private US contractors, which would stop the lucrative sale of US weapons to Riyadh.

However, the United Nations announced on Monday, after feverish lobbying by the Saudi envoy to the UN, in conjunction with US and UK officials, to temporarily remove Saudi Arabia from the blacklist, pending further investigation of the statistics provided in the report.

Many interpret the purported temporary move to delete Saudi Arabia from the list of child-killers as a permanent step, including the Saudi delegation, which loudly announced that the decision was "final."

With human rights atrocities ignored for the sake of political and economic expediency, the path is now paved for the light attack helicopter to make its debut in the skies above Yemen. The Saudi-led mission to combat the Houthi political opposition faction and prop up Saudi-friendly leadership in Yemen has the full support of the US and the UK, despite consistent reports of war crimes conducted by Kingdom forces.

The combat helicopter is said to have a maximum speed of 175 mph, with a range of 267 miles. The aircraft is typically armed with Hellfire missiles, Hydra 70 rockets, air-to-air Stingers, automatic grenade launchers, and five high-caliber machine guns.

[END SPUTNIK REPORT]

Boeing isn't the only company that's been selling materiel to the Saudis in spite of reports of Saudi atrocities in Yemen; there's been a huge scandal in the U.K. about the sale of British military equipment used to bomb in Yemen. But the U.N. capitulation reminds me of the best comment I ever came across about Barack Obama; it was posted in 2008 to a U.S. news site by one Ms. Sonia Trevino. I think it applies just as well to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

"obama reminds me of a magician i saw as a little girl. he put a bunny in a hat and then pulled out a quarter. i was 7 y.o and i was not fooled i stood up and screamed where is the bunny, where is the bunny, what did you do with the bunny."

To return to another excerpt from the RT report, here's something else Mr Ban is making disappear:

The vital need to completely seal off the Syrian-Turkish border to prevent smuggling of fighters, weapons and potentially of materials that can be used by the terrorists to build chemical weapons was once again emphasized by the ambassador.

“Unfortunately, this issue is being persistently hushed up, and the corresponding Russian initiatives to strengthen the fight against the chemical terrorism threat is being slowed down for no apparent reason,” Churkin said.

We'll see if Mr Ban's talents as a prestidigitator can make the effects of a chemical weapon attack disappear. ********

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